Small-business Center Branches Out Ucf Operation Plans To Open An Office At Chamber Building

June 30, 1987|By Adam Yeomans of The Sentinel Staff

The University of Central Florida's Small Business Development Center plans to open a branch office at the Greater Orlando Chamber of Commerce this fall. Counseling by the Small Business Development Center would be more accessible to many people at the chamber's downtown office, said Al Polfer, the center's director.

The chamber branch also would provide better access to many black businesses in Central Florida, Polfer said. The small-business center will administer the Black Business Investment Fund of Central Florida Inc., a state-sponsored program to lend money to black entrepreneurs.

''We would like very much to have a presence in the downtown area,'' Polfer said. The UCF small-business center is about 15 miles east of downtown Orlando; the chamber is at 75 E. Ivanhoe Blvd. near Interstate 4.

A counselor from the Small Business Development Center has worked at the chamber one day a week since mid-February as part of the chamber's small- business consulting program, said Walt Nason, the chamber's small-business specialist.

On July 23, the chamber's board of directors will consider approving free chamber office space for the Small Business Development Center.

Polfer said he expects the full-time branch to start operating in late September or early October, Mondays through Fridays.

The UCF small-business center employs five counselors, including Polfer, whose expertise ranges from marketing to finance to government contracting. Polfer said the center will hire a person this fall to head the Black Business Investment Fund.

Each counselor would spend one day a week at the chamber branch, and the office would be staffed with a secretary, Polfer said. The center's branch would be open to anyone with questions about small business, not strictly chamber members, Nason said.

Organizers of the black investment fund have raised $615,000 and hope to raise $1 million by Aug. 3, said Robert Davis, a fund organizer and senior vice president at Sun Bank N.A. in Orlando.